The 10 best forwards of all time: Who comes out on top between Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona?

Strikers are often the ones that earn the biggest contracts due to the fact that they perform the hardest job in football - putting the ball in the back of the net.

Goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders are all incredibly important when it comes to the make-up of a successful team, but the simple fact of the matter is that no side can be truly successful without a world-class striker or two.

Of course, with practice comes progress, but it is impossible to teach natural finishing abilities, with the best in the sport born with the unique quality of finding the back of the net time and time again.

Here at Sports Mole, we have put together a list of the 10 greatest strikers in the history of the sport, and it was a very difficult task due to the quality of the players in that area of the field.

The top two are no surprise, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo the greatest to ever do it, and it remains to be seen whether their achievements will ever be beaten, but Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe could potentially come close if they continue to find the back of the net.

10: Gerd Muller

Possibly the toughest decision in this list was to leave out two of Gerd Muller, Eusebio and Marco van Basten, but courtesy of winning a clean sweep of trophies across his career, it is the German who gets the nod.

Der Bomber was the focal point of the West Germany side that completed a Euro and World Cup double in 1972 and 1974, finishing as top scorer in the former, after also achieving that feat at the 1970 World Cup, which contributed to him winning the Ballon d’Or that year.

Muller was the Bundesliga top scorer on seven separate occasions, and remains Bayern Munich’s record goalscorer, with an astonishing 565 goals in 607 matches, which helped the club to four Bundesliga titles, four DFB-Pokals, and three European Cup wins in his time at the club.

9: Alfredo Di Stefano

A central figure in Real Madrid’s early dominance of European football, the naturalised Spaniard, born in Argentina, remains one of the greatest players in the club’s long and illustrious history.

Moving to Los Blancos in 1953, Di Stefano was part of the squad that won each of the first five instalments of the European Cup, scoring in each final, as well as a hat trick against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960, winning two Ballons d’Or in the process, and the lesser-seen Super Ballon d’Or, which has been handed out only once, in 1989, to Di Stefano, crowning the best player of the previous 30 years.

If that was not enough, Di Stefano also helped the club to eight league titles, finishing as La Liga top scorer in five separate seasons, as he netted 308 goals in 396 games for the Spanish giants, cementing his status as one of the greatest strikers in the history of the game.

8: Roberto Baggio

Forever an icon of Italian football, ask the average Azzurri fan who their favourite national team player of all time is, and the majority will answer with Baggio, after his World Cup exploits in the 1990s.

Baggio burst onto the world scene at Italia 90, scoring the goal of the tournament against Czechoslovakia on the way to a Bronze medal, but it was at USA 94 where his legend was realised, dragging Italy to the final single-handedly, before tragically missing the deciding penalty in the final against Brazil.

That moment has haunted Baggio for life, but it does not take anything away from a legendary career that brought a Ballon d’Or win in 1993, while he was also voted in fourth in FIFA’s Player of the Century list in 1999, and it says a lot that even though he turned out for Fiorentina, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, he is still fondly remembered by all four fanbases, despite the bad blood that exists between them.

7: Ronaldo

In a career full of ‘what ifs’, Ronaldo was extremely unfortunate to be struck down with so many injuries, as well as the frightening seizure he suffered at the 1998 World Cup, but that does not detract from the legend, and everything he achieved in the game.

After scoring almost a goal-per-game at Cruzeiro, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, the latter of which earned him his first Ballon d’Or, Ronaldo then moved to Inter Milan for a world-record fee, a year after Barca broke it to buy him, becoming only the second player to set it twice.

Ronaldo will always be mostly fondly remembered for his success with Brazil though, because he was magnificent at the 1998 World Cup, before a seizure clearly affected his performance on the eve of the final, but he turned up four years later and scored twice in the final to clinch the trophy for the Selecao in 2002, which won him another Ballon d’Or in the process.

6: Johan Cruyff

A revolutionary figure in the sport and beyond, Cruyff was also the first player to retain the Ballon d’Or, and to win it three times, being front and centre of the Total Football approach that brought success and joy with both his club side Ajax and the Netherlands.

Cruyff would win three straight European Cups with Ajax starting in 1971, with that earning him his first Ballon d’Or, but it was in 1974 when his legend was truly set in stone, winning La Liga in his debut season with Barcelona and following that up by taking the Golden Ball at the World Cup despite losing in the final.

That was the same World Cup where he fathered the world-famous turn named in his honour, and the man was such a revolutionary that he even has a position still loosely named after him, with a free-roaming attacker often referred to playing in the ‘Cruyff Role’.

5: Ferenc Puskas

A man sometimes overlooked as one of the greatest forwards of all time is the Mighty Magyar Puskas, who was a pivotal part of the Hungarian team in the 1950s that revolutionised the sport forever, and played some of the most impressive, dominant and eye-catching football ever caught on camera.

Sadly, the Hungarian squad was split up due to the uprising in 1956, so Puskas moved to Real Madrid after scoring 84 goals in 85 caps, and 382 in just 367 games for Budapest Honved, but his success continued with Los Blancos, winning three European Cups and five La Liga titles, being named the top scorer on four separate occasions.

Simply visiting Budapest makes it clear how highly-regarded Puskas is in the country’s history, with the national stadium and surrounding park named in his honour, with tributes paid to him within the museum dedicated to him about what a travesty the events of 1956 were, and what Hungary could have achieved at international level if the squad was kept together.

4: Pele

The first footballing celebrity, Pele transcended the sport and became an icon globally, not just at home in Brazil, where he is still regarded as the greatest player of all time.

Breaking onto the scene as a 17-year-old at the 1958 World Cup, he set a number of records that have still never been broken, including being the youngest player ever to win the competition, the youngest to play in a final, the youngest to score in a final, and the youngest to score a hat trick at a World Cup, as he did in the semi-final versus France.

Pele went on to win two more World Cup titles, being part of the 1970 squad that is often famed as being the greatest team in sporting history, as well as scoring a whopping 1,279 goals in his career, while his famous number 10 jersey that he wore for the Selecao throughout his career has become one of the most iconic sporting artefacts of all time.

3: Diego Maradona

Before the modern era, there was usually only one answer to who the finest footballer ever to live was, and that honour belonged to Napoli and Argentina legend Maradona.

A God-like figure in Naples and across the entirety of his homeland, Maradona almost single-handedly dragged Argentina to success at the 1986 World Cup, with his ‘Goal of the Century’ against England being the notable highlight, as well as the notorious ‘Hand of God’ in the same fixture.

At club level, Maradona is forever synonymous with Napoli, a club he guided to their first two Serie A titles ever, in 1987 and 1990, and the esteem he is held in is there for all to see when turning any corner in Naples, as there are shrines and murals dedicated to the late great everywhere you look, illustrating the level he performed at, and the joy he brought to millions.

2: Cristiano Ronaldo

A player who would have been the greatest player in the world in any era except for the one he played in, Ronaldo had to wrestle for supremacy with Lionel Messi for the entirety of his glittering career, but that still did not get in his way of unprecedented success.

Despite having competition from Messi, Ronaldo has still won the Ballon d’Or on five occasions, as he also made the Champions League his own, clinching the title five times, while being the all-time top scorer with 140 goals, during a career that has seen him surpass 950 strikes.

Ronaldo has won league titles in La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A, and his success even extended into international football, being one of the key cogs in a modest Portugal side winning Euro 2016 against the odds, while he has also played a big hand in their two UEFA Nations League crowns.

1: Lionel Messi

What more can be said about Barcelona and Argentina legend Messi, who has won everything there is to win and more, collecting the Ballon d’Or on eight separate occasions, as well as four Champions League trophies, a further 24 domestic honours, as well as six European Golden Shoes.

Long elusive success finally arrived at international level later in his career too, as Messi got over numerous heartbreaks and two retirements, before finally winning the Copa America in 2021, which was a precursor to the 2022 World Cup win, clinching the Holy Grail for the Argentine, and cementing his place as the greatest ever.

With 672 goals in his spell at Barcelona, Messi will surely never be caught by any other player who pulls on the famous blue and red jersey either, and he will most likely forever be remembered as the finest player the game has ever seen.